


The Night We Met

by NotWhoYouThink131



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Cannon Era, Everyone but Hercules is dead, Historical Inaccuracy, Kinda Gay at the end, Song fic, That's right song fics are still a thing, The Night We Met-Lord Huron, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 10:41:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11011800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotWhoYouThink131/pseuds/NotWhoYouThink131
Summary: There is not enough whiskey in the whole world to make him forget them. The room will never be dark enough for him to not imagine them in front of him. He will always be haunted, reliving the nights and weeks he spent with these men. The pub is empty now, it’s been empty for years, but Hercules doesn’t like the thought of leaving after all these years, turning out in the empty streets of an abandoned section of town. This was where he met John, where Lafayette found him. This is where Aaron brought Alex… This was where their story began. The Story of Tonight happened here.





	The Night We Met

    There is not enough whiskey in the whole world to make him forget them. The room will never be dark enough for him to not imagine them in front of him. He will always be haunted, reliving the nights and weeks he spent with these men. The pub is empty now, it’s been empty for years, but Hercules doesn’t like the thought of leaving after all these years, turning out in the empty streets of an abandoned section of town. This was where he met John, where Lafayette found him. This is where Aaron brought Alex… This was where their story began. The Story of Tonight happened here.  
I am not the only traveler  
Who has not repaid his debt  
I’ve been searching for a trail to follow again  
Take me back to the night we met  
    When they lost John, Hercules couldn’t believe what had happened. Up to that day, John had seemed literally indestructible, taking on everything with a determined aggression that Hercules had always admired. Though John was always younger, he took Hercules under his wing and lifted him up whenever he was down as if he was a big brother. When Hercules got the letter from John’s father saying he had passed, Hercules could do nothing but drink for weeks. After months of stumbling drunk through the streets in a mournful haze, Alexander finally found him and brought him into his home, him and Eliza struggling to nurse him back to health (Among raising a new baby, no less) before turning him back out into the world to continue mourning. He soberly struggled with John’s death for years after that, Alexander at his side mourning the death of someone Hercules always suspected to be his lover. He wasn’t one to pry.  
And then I can tell myself  
What the hell I’m supposed to do  
And then I can tell myself  
Not to ride along with you  
    And then Burr shot Alexander, and the cycle Hercules had found himself trying to forget repeated itself. He had lost another one of his best friends, and all he could do was wallow in his own despair. He had tried to get in contact with Lafayette, knowing with his active work in the rebellion in France he only had limited time left with his only friend, but he was probably still in jail from his efforts in the revolution and could not contact Hercules for years. Eliza wouldn’t talk to anyone after Alexander’s death, especially not a drunken fool who would only get in the way of her raising the children she had left, and Hercules was left alone in this old seedy pub that had a declining business, staring down the bottom of bottle after bottle until he had forgotten Alex’s name altogether. Aaron was a friend of theirs- albeit an estranged frienemy, but a type of friend nonetheless- and the thought of him taking Alexander out of the world just as quick as he had brought him into their lives was something Hercules had not wanted to grapple with. He had already lost John and without Lafayette there to guide him, he lost himself. He would never admit it, but he had attempted to take his own life soon after Alex’s death. If you want to call that an attempt; he stared down the barrel of his rifle for several days, wondering what it would take to take away something that had been taken from so many already. He ended up discarding the gun and promising himself to never discuss this again.  
I had all and then most of you  
Some and now none of you  
Take me back to the night we met  
I don’t know what I’m supposed to do  
Haunted by the ghost of you  
Take me back to the night we met  
    Many years later he was finally reunited with Lafayette. It was a quick visit- Lafayette had become bedridden and wasn’t going to last much longer, so he pleaded that Hercules come to France to see him- but it was almost worth every second they were apart. Almost. They joked and Hercules drank all night, sharing stories and memories for hours. Lafayette trying to keep a positive attitude despite the knowledge he would soon be leaving this world. This was the first time since before John’s death they had actually been face to face, and Hercules could barely speak when he noticed Lafayette being sluggish and drained. When no one else was in the room, Hercules admitted he had always loved Lafayette more than any man should love a man, to which Lafayette had just smiled at him, too weak for words. He passed away before the sun rose. When he finally lost Lafayette, Hercules knew he was damned to be lost and alone for the rest of his life, whatever was left of it.  
When the night was full of terrors  
And your eyes were filled with tears  
When you had not touched me yet  
Take me back to the night we met  
    And now here he sits, in an abandoned pub, a flask full of the strongest whiskey he could find, and it still wasn’t enough. He remembered sitting at this very table, singing and dancing with his friends many times; when they met Alexander, Alex’s bachelor party, John’s bachelor party, when they won the war, Lafayette’s farewell. The memories rushed through his head one after the other, his ability to swallow becoming more and more impossible with each second the lump in his throat grew. Hysterical sobs shook him until he was dizzy from lack of breath. His vision remained blurred with tear for an amount of time he was unsure of, as time always seemed to move too slow and fast at the same time. He could’ve been sitting here crying for twenty minutes or two weeks, he was never sure anymore. Not that it mattered.  
I had all and then most of you  
Some and now none of you  
Take me back to the night we met  
I don’t know what I’m supposed to do  
Haunted by the ghost of you  
Take me back to the night we met  
    Now he will never forget. This is where the Story of Tonight happened. This is where their story began. And this is where his story has lost all meaning.


End file.
